This invention relates to recording and reproducing apparatus for recording and playing back information relating to entertainment programs and, more particularly, to an improvement of such apparatus in which information concerning programs on television, radio, or the like may be preset by a user.
A programmable tape recorder is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,224,644.
Conventional electronic devices for consumer use, for example, video tape recorders, audio cassette recorders and the like, are provided with programming timers which are useful in recording at least one entertainment program that may be broadcast in the future. More advanced programming apparatus are known to execute more sophisticated functions using preset program information that may be selected by the user.
In video tape recorders of the above-described type which can be preprogrammed to record a large number of entertainment programs (referred to as "events"), it is impossible to record a plurality of events that occur in the same time zone (e.g. that contain portions which coexist simultaneously. However, when the user programs the recorder to record a large number of events, he may mistakenly attempt to preset the recorder to record a plurality of events which will, nevertheless, be present during the same time zone. In that case, even when one of these events is of great importance to the user, if a selected event of lesser importance is present (and, thus, will be in the process of being recorded) before the start of the more important event, the latter will not be recorded. At best, only partial recording of the important event will be possible.
Moreover, in a video tape recorder of the above-described type, when information concerning the preset events is to be displayed, changed or canceled, data representing that information, such as date, time and channel of broadcast (referred to as preset data) generally is displayed on a display screen in the form of characters, numbers or symbols which may not be readily understood by the user. This difficulty is exacerbated when the number of programming functions and options increases because this causes the amount and type of preset data to increase.
Furthermore, in a video tape recorder of the above-described type which is capable of being preset or programmed to record a large number of events, when information representing the preset events (i.e. the preset data) is to be reviewed, checked, changed or canceled, the preset data normally is displayed on a monitor. However, display of all the information included in the preset data makes it difficult for the user to understand and fully appreciate just what is being displayed.
In a video tape recorder having event-programmable capability, when the user programs the recorder to record events or when the user checks the preset data relating to events to be recorded, it is convenient to display to the user a calendar during the presetting operation.